-- Roy Hofheinz and his two winning seasons
-- A couple of credit companies from 1975 through 1979, and if the slew of consolidation advertisements out there has taught us anything, it's that credit companies are just Bin Laden-style financial terrorists with nicer offices
-- John McMullen and his three playoff appearances in 13 seasons.

So is Drayton McLane the best Astros owner of all time? Well, yeah. I suppose. And then again, Gilbert's girlfriend in Revenge of the Nerds was probably the best-looking Omega Mu. "Tallest midget" thing going on.

So let's concede, yes, he's the best Astros' owner ever. Easily. The question that we need to ask is "Was he a good owner?" There are two answers to that one...

2. Drayton McLane, the Business Owner. In a way, "Is Drayton McLane a good owner?" is a ridiculous question if you take the definition of what a "business owner's" goals should be -- profit and shareholder value. I don't have the year-to-year annual numbers for the Astros, but I do know that McLane is a fixture on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans. And as for "shareholder value"? Well, I think the primary shareholder (himself) has to be happy with what the owner (also himself) is doing in that area as today's sale will net McLane a profit of well over $500 million from when he bought the team in 1992 for the -- ahem -- paltry sum of $117 million.

So yeah, Drayton McLane is pretty good at the fundamentals of owning a business. But...

3. Drayton McLane, the Baseball Owner. ...Baseball is not a normal business. Sports, in general, is not a normal business.

(SIDE BAR: Houstonians know this all too well. Bob McNair's Texans have never been to the playoffs and the team is one of the most profitable, valuable commodities in team sports. Drayton McLane is about to realize a 500 percent return on his original investment. Let's face it, as happy as today is for any Astro fan looking for a light at the end of the Drayton McLane Tunnel, when you realize what Drayton McLane will profit off of this stripped-down version of the franchise we all loved six years ago, if you've been buying the tickets and the overpriced nachos, part of you feels a little like a sucker, don't you? Maybe?)

My main question I ask anytime there is a change in a sports regime -- coaching, general manager, owner -- "Did the person in question leave the part he's responsible for in better shape than when he found it?"

For example, there's a decent chance that in the transition from one ownership group to the next, Astros general manager Ed Wade could get whacked. Just because someone gets fired doesn't mean they were bad at their job. Sometimes, it means they just weren't good enough (or they were a friend of Tal Smith's).

Wade inherited a minor league system that was barren, some terrible contracts (Woody Williams, Carlos Lee) and a team that was frankly just not very good, and he was asked to make it a "champion" while rebuilding the minor league system. As Jerry Seinfeld would say, "Good luck with all that." While the results on the field have been predictably terrible, especially the last two years, Wade has made some good hires in the scouting department and imposed a cultural shift on how the franchise treats the draft and the need to sign draft choices (novel concept, I know).

In short, the next general manager (if and when there is one) comes into a better "GM situation" than Wade inherited from Tim Purpura in 2007. That's not even up for debate.

Bringing this back around to Drayton McLane, when Uncle D purchased the Astros in November 1992, they looked like this:

1. Players. A young nucleus of guys who had legitimate chemistry, including a future MVP in the late Ken Caminiti and two likely Hall of Famers in Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio. The late Darryl Kile and Luis Gonzalez were also part of the mix, and while Caminiti, Gonzalez and Kile would go on to have their best seasons elsewhere, the Astros clearly picked the right two guys to build around for the next decade.

2. History Three playoff appearances in franchise history. Three.

3. Record. They were coming off an 81-81 season in 1992, which was their best year since winning 86 games in 1989. The nucleus was young and the arrow was pointing up. But...

4. Stadium. ...The McMullen regime was very vocal about the need for a new stadium to compete in baseball's brave new world of "additional revenue streams" and "small market versus big market." In fairness to McMullen, he was right about that. The Astrodome was a dump, and not exactly a dump rife with transcendent memories, either. (When a Bad News Bears movie is a top ten moment for your ballpark, it's okay to move on.) With Camden Yards being built in Baltimore and, soon thereafter, Jacobs Field in Cleveland, the message was clear -- if you were going to compete in the new millennium, a new palace would be necessary.

So, Drayton inherited a few good, young players coming off an average season with a franchise that honestly hadn't had that many average seasons. And a stadium that would need replacing.

Before doling out my final grade on Drayton, let's look at a few of the things he did along the way:

HUGE PLUS -- He not only kept the Astros in Houston, but he got a new stadium (one of the nicest in baseball) built. In the end, this will be the bullet point that defines his legacy both as a business owner (nothing like getting taxpayers to bear the brunt of building your facility) and a baseball owner ("Suck it, Washington D.C.! Go steal the Expos!").

PLUS -- He hired Gerry Hunsicker as the architect for a team that made the playoffs six times in nine years.

MINUS -- He also ran Hunsicker off in 2004....

INSULT TO EVERY OTHER MINUS -- ...and replaced him with Tim Purpura. Seriously, if there is one hire that could undo all of the goodwill of getting a stadium built and keeping the team in Houston, in retrospect, this was it.

PLUS -- However, along the way, Drayton approved moves that were "go for it" types of moves -- Randy Johnson, Carlos Beltran. They were expensive in terms of prospects, but they were the right moves.

BIG, FAT MINUS -- Carlos Lee. Six years, $100 million.

MINUS -- Not really worrying about signing draft picks until he had decided to put the team on eBay. Thanks for that, Drayton.

If you were writing the Cliffs Notes on the Drayton McLane Era, these items would all have chapters. The bottom line is that we had a lot of fun along the way, hung some banners on the wall, and had much nicer walls to hang them on than we did in 1993.

But the exit chapter is a depressing one. The Astros during the McLane Era are a bit like Steve Martin's character in The Jerk -- from humble baseball beginnings, the Astros became a "player" in the figurative business community of baseball, peaking in the 2005 season with a trip to the World Series. However, shortly thereafter, with nothing but Craig Biggio's chase for 3,000 hits (Biggio is absolutely the "Optigrab" in my analogy) to sell to a skeptical fan base, McLane and the Astros are in the process of bottoming out right now.

So is the team in better shape than when McLane bought it? This nucleus is not even close to the Bagwell/Biggio group. And it doesn't appear Crane is going for the quick fix either. Indeed, the furniture (players) inside the house that is Minute Maid Park is rotting. It's insufficient. Some of it is outdated and, frankly, embarrassing. (Yes, I'm referring to the "Carlos sectional. ")

It's going to be a while before the Astros are a factor in the National League again. So, from a talent standpoint, the team is worse off now than it was in 1993.

That's translated into empty seats in a season where the highlight so far has been a fan making a superhero escape from Minute Maid security after running on the field.

So did Drayton leave the Astros on the field in better condition than he found them in 1992? Probably not.

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Why does the Houston Press keep failing to mention the signing of Andy and Roger?You know, those native Houstonians who returned home to play for our beloved 'Stros. Is it because they may or may not have used performance enhancers? Many fail to forget that in the land of the United States of America, you are innocent until proven otherwise. Or admit some form of wrongdoing.

The signing of Andy Pettitte, led to the wooing and later on the signing of Roger Clemens. Two native Houstonians, if you count Deer Park. Drayton, probably still heart-broken after no being to sign the former Blue Jays Clemens, made a deal that Roger couldn't refuse. And to irritation of MLB, gave Roger the unprecedented clause that he was excused from road trips when wasn't scheduled to start. And Drayton did it again, the next season. In the terms of car dealers, "We make the deals, that other dealers refuse to do". And Drayton did it, bringing Roger, and reuniting him with his former teammate and friend Andy Pettitte.

And now the $22,222,222.22 question of Drayton's legacy. Without Roger and Andy, would the Astros have reached the playoffs in 2004 & 2005? And shaken the playoff curse of 1997 (swept by Braves), 1998 (lost to Padres 3-1, twenty game winner Jose Lima didn't even pitch!!!),1999 (lost to Braves 3-1), and in 2001 (swept by the Braves, again). If you were counting, only 2 playoff victories during this wretched playoff curse.

And comes to 2004, were Drayton adds Roger and Andy to compliment Biggio, Bagwell, Oswalt, Wandy among others. The Astros sneak past the Giants in late September to win the NL Wild Card. Our 'Stros defeat the well-loved Braves, 3-2 on the road in Atlanta. "ASTROS WIN!!! ASTROS WIN AGAIN!!!". But unfortunately, we fall to the beloved Cardinals and Albert Pujols in seven games. Fortunately, in 2005 the Astros bounce back, and Drayton again lures Roger out of retirement, in mid-season. The Astros reach the playoffs, defeat the Braves, defeat the Cardinals and reach the World Series. And well unfortunately.....well we all know what happened next. But the philosophical question remains as "Is it better to lost a love, than to never have loved before". We made the World Series, and unfortunately it's been down Tal Hill's ever since.

Now, please don't misinterpret that I believe that Roger and Andy were the main factors in our 2004- 2005 seasons. But, as we discovered from the Braves (Smoltz, Maddux) and Padres (Kevin Brown, Kevin Brown), it's all about the pitching in the playoffs. And looking back, we can add Clemens and Pettitte to Drayton McLane's legacy.

Very early in the McLane era, he spoke at a large Rodeo committee meeting - right after he'd bought a couple pitchers who didn't work out real well. He was pretty self effacing, admitting that he didn't know much about baseball at the time - like how it amazed him that consistently getting onto base even a third of the time was considered a monumental achievement. So he hired some people who knew what they were doing (see: Hunsicker) and let them do their jobs. So far, so good.

Fast forward to the team riding high. Suddenly, we have a very hands on owner. And a tailspin that didn't take near as long as the buildup.

It will be interesting to see how Crane's experience playing college ball plays out.

If Crane buys the Astros in 2008 instead of 2011 Drayton gets an A-. But the last couple years have been brutal. Starting with Lee, then Tejada, the moves that Drayton has forced the team to make and the absolute disregard for the draft sunk the team.

Here is to hoping Crane can lure Hunsicker out of Tampa, be it as the GM or in the same role he manning with the Rays.

Due respect Seanie, I think to say that Drayton didn't leave the on-field product in better shape than in 93 is a bit overly simplistic. Certainly, anyone with a glass eye can see that the talent level is much worse now. But in between, say 97-04, it got a LOT better.

And the fact that they were as competitive as they were during that time was a big factor in getting MMP built, and ultimately, that 500M profit he's turning.

It's certainly a complicated legacy. He inherited a team on the uptick, turned it into a well-oiled machine, made lots of money, kept it going as long as he could, but ultimately, an aging mind and bloating ego brought it down.

I'll choose to remember and appreciate what he did for the franchise as a whole, while also acknowledging the blatantly obvious: It's time to go.